Ron DeSantis Snaps At Reporter's Question: 'Whoa Whoa Whoa - Give Me A Break - That Is Nonsense!'

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) fires back at a reporter's question about recent comments from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. Forbes breaking news official youtube channel shared this viral video, which you can watch below:

 

DeSantis while addressing the media briefing said:

Whoa, whoa, give me a break. That is nonsense. Stop politicizing. Okay, stop it.

We declared a state of emergency when this thing wasn't even formed. We've had people in here. You've had counties doing They've done a lot of hard work, and honestly, You're attacking these other people who've worked very hard, and so that's just totally false. I don't think we've ever, certainly since I've been Governor, declared a state of emergency this early. We made sure that we were very inclusive with it.

We said that there was a lot of uncertainty and then we've worked to make sure the preparations that have been done and all the stuff you talk to the people at the counties when they need something gets there very quickly because of what Kevin and his team have done.

I think that's why you have evacuations that have been ordered in the low-lying areas, and again, that's a county decision, but it's a decision we've supported. We've worked with them on this because you do have a potentially historic storm surge now.

We were here 24 hours ago. You were looking at maybe 10 to 12 feet in the Tampa Bay area. Now that has shifted to where that type of surge may be further down the coast in Southwest Florida.

You still have Tampa facing a potentially significant storm surge, which is potentially life-threatening at that level.

You also have the situation where you could have almost like hurricane Harvey was in Houston, where it gets on show and is just slowly moving and meandering, dumping water and water everywhere, and that's going to pile up and that's going to cause a lot of problems with flooding, and so you know, we've been talking about that the whole time and people understand that. That's why the evacuations have not just been of the Barrier Islands but areas that are susceptible to that type of flooding.

And I think if you look at Charlotte, Charlotte County, and some of those areas, you have a potential for major inundation there, and it's not just the people that live on the coast, so I think that message has been delivered by the local emergency managers. I think they've done a good job.